Your Options

I’m Pregnant, what are my options?

We understand that your decisions in dealing with an unplanned pregnancy will not be easy. Our goal is to provide you as much information as possible so that you can choose the best option for you and most importantly, the best option for your baby. We are not here to sway you in any direction. Our job is to provide information and help support you as you make your decision, one that is best for you, your partner, and your baby. Consider the best decision for your child. Some options for you and your child’s father include:

As a mother you have rights. It is important to learn about your rights in relation to the adoption process. Some mothers are hesitant at first about their option of adoption, but then come to the realization that they may not have the time or resources to raise the child. Remember you can choose to be involved in the adoption process.

The decision you make when facing an unplanned pregnancy is one that will affect the rest of your life. An essential resource is the Pregnancy Options Workbook, also in Spanish. Remember that you do not have to go through this pregnancy alone. We are here to help and support you in your decision making process, no matter which option you choose in the end. Adoptions From The Heart offers options counseling. Regardless of your final decision, we are here to help.

Latest Pregnancy & Adoption Updates

By Heidi Gonzalez

Below you'll find the latest information and research on pregnancy and adoption.

December 2, 2016 – New Jersey Set To Unseal 300,000 Adoption Records By Year’s End

New Jersey’s Office of Vital Statistics and Registry is preparing to unseal the birth certificates of around 300,000 adopted people on January 1, 2017, according to NorthJersey.com. The change in public policy was authorized by a State law that Governor Chris Christie signed in 2014. A similar one will take effect in Pennsylvania at the end of 2017.

The move will allow adoptees to request documentation listing their place, time and date of birth, along with the names of their biological parents. Biological parents who wish to remain anonymous still have a little under one month to have their names redacted from the documents upon request. The final date to have one’s name removed from a birth certificate is December 31, 2016, but is not applicable to adoptions that were finalized on or after August 1, 2015.

Parents can also specify how much, if any, contact they would like to allow with their biological children, information that can be submitted at any time. Parents who choose no contact can supply the State’s Office of Vital Statistics and Registry with an updated medical history. To date, over 160 biological parents have asked to have their names redacted from birth certificates, Donna Leusner, spokesperson for the New Jersey Health Department says. 80 biological parents have provided their contact information, the vast majority consenting to be contacted directly by their biological children, rather than through an intermediary. Nearly 500 adoptees have filed applications to receive their birth certificates.

Pregnant women have long been encouraged to exercise regularly, albeit at moderate exertion levels, to promote a healthy pregnancy. In the past, researchers have raised concerns that intense workout regimens could reduce cardiovascular output, decreasing blood flow to a developing baby and boosting the risks for miscarriage and low birth weight. A new analysis of currently-published data, though, has shown promising results for women, especially elite athletes, who would like to continue rigorous training while pregnant.

In a study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, a team led by Canadian doctor Gregory Davies found that regular exercise, even at elite levels, didn’t raise the risk for a premature delivery or a low birth weight. Instead, routine physical activity appeared to shorten the first stage of labor for women and may even reduce the need for cesarean sections. Sedentary lifestyles, Davies told CBS News, are likely more risky than strenuous activity.

Certain activities should still be avoided, however. During the first three months of pregnancy, repetitive weight training appears to increase the risk of miscarriage and the researchers advise pregnant women to avoid that form of exercise. The risk for physical injuries should also be taken into account, Davies said, especially for athletes who hope to compete professionally while pregnant.

October 5, 2016 – US Maternal Mortality Rate Is Rising

“The US maternal mortality rate is moving in the wrong direction,” according to researchers at the University of Maryland, Boston University and Stanford. While the death rate among pregnant women has declined worldwide, it’s increased in the United States, growing by nearly 25% between 2000 and 2015.

Where pregnant women’s lives are concerned, the United States now ranks lower than Libya and Kazakhstan.

Need another reason to stock up on healthy eating options? Canadian researchers say that expectant mothers who eat more fruit could be increasing the intelligence of their children. Studying 688 children living in Edmonton, the scientists discovered that women who ate between six and seven servings of fruit per day gave birth to children who tested higher on a traditional IQ scale.

Kids who stay in the womb longer also tend to have higher IQs, researcher Francois Bolduc told Science Daily. Eating just one serving of fruit every day was equivalent to giving a baby one week longer inside her mother. Of course, this isn’t a reason to binge on fruits and juices. Bolduc is careful to note that overconsuming fruit can increase the risk of gestational diabetes and high birthweights.

After teens and poor women were offered free IUDs as part of a program in Colorado, unplanned pregnancies dropped by 40%. The area’s abortion rate decreased by 42%, according to the New York Times. Now a similar program is coming to Texas. Thanks to a $2 million donation to Planned Parenthood in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, local women will have access to free intrauterine devices, or IUDs, implantable birth control devices that are becoming increasingly popular among young women.

July 13, 2016 – Most Pregnancy Multi-Vitamins Are An Unfounded Marketing Ploy, UK Research Says

For years, doctors and government organizations have urged women to take a few crucial vitamins before and during their pregnancies. Most official agencies limit their recommendations to folic acid, which vastly decreases the risk of certain birth defects, and Vitamin D. But vitamin manufacturers go much further, heavily marketing a wide array of multi-vitamins to pregnant women. New research, published in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, says there’s little evidence to support their claims.

Summing up his study’s results, lead author James Cave MD told reporters:
“We found no evidence to recommend that all pregnant women should prenatal multi-nutrient supplements beyond the nationally advised folic acid and vitamin D supplements.” Which are cheap, sold in generic versions, Cave points out – unlike most of the more-comprehensive multi-vitamins marketed for pregnancy. Beyond expensive, multi-vitamins can also be harmful. “A far better idea,” Cave says, “is ensuring your are eating plenty of fruit and vegetables [and] making sure you exercise.”

A new study out of the UK suggests that many pregnant women avoid taking drugs, even ones that researchers believe are safe during pregnancy. Surveying 1,120 women in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the public health scientists found vast disparities in which conditions women were willing to treat through pharmaceutical medicines.

More than 63% of pregnant women who experienced heartburn turned to over-the-counter or prescription drugs, but only 9.5% of the women who experienced nausea did. The researchers were particularly worried about non-treatment of urinary tract infections, which can turn into kidney infections dangerous to both mother and child. Around 35% of the women who reported contracting a UTI did not seek treatment.

Of course, not all prescription or OTC meds are safe for pregnant women to take. That’s why study lead author Michael Twigg says women should always ask a health professional about the drugs they’re considering taking. His fear is that many people are harboring unfounded fears about drug use during pregnancy, and not seeking needed treatments as a result.

May 11, 2016 – Folic Acid May Increase Autism Risk, But Study Could Be Flawed

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found evidence that high amounts of folic acid, a form of Vitamin B universally recommended to pregnant women, may actually raise the risk of delivering children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The study has yet to be published, according to LiveScience, but the results will be presented at an autism research conference in Baltimore on May 13.

In her study, lead author Ramkripa Raghavan, a doctoral student focusing on maternal and child health, discovered that women with very high levels of folic acid in their blood were twice as likely to have had a child with an ASD.

It’s the culmination of more than 15 years of research. In 2001, Raghavan and her co-authors gave around 1,400 new moms a blood test within the first three days after delivery. The women and children, who came from a low-income, minority community in Boston, were then tracked for 15 years to see which kids were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Another vitamin, Vitamin B12, was linked to a three-fold increase in the risk for an ASD.

This may seem troubling, especially since women are often told to take folic acid during pregnancy because the vitamin appears to lower the risk of neural tube defects. But other scientists have urged caution, reports the UK-based newspaper the Independent.

Raghavan’s study hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet, so it may contain methodological flaws. Autism spectrum disorders, for that matter, are “somewhat subjective,” says cognitive development expert Chris Jarrold. Two experts can disagree on a diagnosis, and the rate of ASD in Raghavan’s study, more than 100 out of 1,391 children, is almost suspiciously high. Unless folic acid usage was also extremely high among the mothers, Jarrold says that we should view the new results with skepticism.

For her part, Raghavan doesn’t want to suggest that pregnant women should stop taking folic acid altogether. It could be case of “too much of a good thing,” she told the Independent. “We tell women to be sure to get folate early in pregnancy. What we need to figure out now is whether there should be additional recommendations about just what an optimal dose is throughout pregnancy.”

April 7, 2016 – Unintended Pregnancy Rate Slips Below 50%

A new study from the Guttmacher Institute, published March 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine, provides evidence that America’s unplanned pregnancy rate fell to a 30-year low between 2008 and 2011. Unintended pregnancies have always been surprisingly common in the United States, and far higher than other developed countries. In fact, until very recently, it was widely accepted that more than 50% of pregnancies in the US were unplanned. But researchers from Guttmacher, the country’s foremost reproductive health research organization, say just 45% of pregnancies in 2011 were unintended, compared to 51% in 2008. Moreover, those rates fell across the board, regardless of a woman’s marital status, income level, education level, ethnicity or race.

March 7, 2016 – How Do You Know If Young Men Will Stay With Their Children? Ask About Their Views On Sex.

Can you predict whether or not a young father will stick around to parent his child? Surprisingly, few studies have tried to tackle the issue of teen pregnancy from a father’s point of view. Most research focuses instead on the sexual behavior and beliefs of young women, but a group of researchers at Northwestern University recently broke that trend.

The researchers used interviews with more than 10,200 young men, conducted when they were teens, about their opinions on “risky sex,” birth control and pregnancy. Teens were asked how much they agreed with statements like:

“If you had sexual intercourse, your friends would respect you more.”

“It wouldn’t be all that bad if you got someone pregnant at this time in your life.”

“Using birth control interferes with sexual enjoyment.”

Those questions were asked 14 years ago. This year, the Northwestern researchers checked up on each young man’s fatherhood status, and found strong correlations between the opinions they held during youth and whether or not they were still living with their children.

Teenage males who looked more “favorably” on pregnancy (saying it “wouldn’t be that bad if they got a young woman pregnant”) were 20% more likely to become “nonresident fathers,” living away from their children. Young men who said they were less concerned about having unprotected sex were 30% more likely to become nonresident fathers. Teens who understood how effective birth control is were 28% less likely to become nonresident fathers.

The research is especially important because it doesn’t just look at the connection between a young man’s opinion on sex and his likelihood of becoming a father, but whether or not he’ll remain a resident father, and continue living with his kids.

Researchers have been debating the effect that becoming pregnant before the age of 18 has on a young woman’s life for decades.

One school of thought holds that dealing with the unavoidable stresses of pregnancy and parenting prevents many young mothers from earning as much money as they would be able to without children, and restricts their access to academic opportunities. Another theory takes as its starting point the fact that a majority of teen pregnancies can be found in communities already disadvantaged socioeconomically. Pregnancy doesn’t reduce a mother’s ability to earn more; it’s where she lives, and the resources that are or aren’t available to her that do. Yet another idea is that pregnancy actually helps some young women prioritize their goals, leading to more opportunities in the long-run.

A new study, conducted by sociologists at the University of Arizona, lends credence to all three of these theories. Whether pregnancy has a negative or positive effect on a woman’s educational progress and future earnings depends on the advantages she had before getting pregnant. The researchers looked at more than 3,600 young women, and their analysis confirmed the generally-accepted notion that young mothers have lower levels of education and total earnings than women who delay becoming pregnant.

But the impact of getting pregnant varies depending on a mother’s personal circumstances, like family expectations and household income. Women who were considered less likely to get pregnant (like those from high-income families in wealthy suburbs) lost out more, in terms of education and future earnings, than women from low-income backgrounds. Teen pregnancy isn’t an isolated issue, the researchers concluded, and it shouldn’t be treated as one.